"Cats" - River City Theater Company (RCTC)

Left: Demeter (Monika Neal).

Monika is the most amazing fireball of energy!

I first met Monika in the 2000 production of "Evita" at DMTC. She was a 10-year-old in the Children's Chorus - a bit shy, a little careful. In just a short seven years, she's come light years. Every time I see her perform, I barely recognize her, she's transforming so quickly into musical theater's most-serious triple threat!

Monika has just been accepted by University of California, Irvine, where she will be majoring in musical theater, the first time UCI has had this major (before, they've had a dance major with an emphasis in musical theater).


Left: Munkustrap (Timothy Stewart).


















Left: Victoria (Katelyn Moorhouse). Katelyn is a fine dancer, and amazingly limber. She trains in Folsom.

I awkwardly tried imparting some wisdom to her, saying to keep on dancing, since the brain effectively rewires itself from ages 12 to 15, and dancing is the best possible activity during that age span. Whether or not it's true, it all sounded a bit foolish, but she was very gracious and heard me out.











Left: Cast at bows. Pictured in the front row include Growltiger (Andrew Lemons), Mr. Mistofeles (Alex Stewart), Grizabella (Katherine Vanderford), Munkustrap (Timothy Stewart), Old Deuteronomy (Sean Nill), Rum Tum Tugger (Elliot Mende), Victoria (Katelyn Moorhouse), and Demeter (Monika Neal).




Left: The entire cast.









"Cats" set.











Left: Orchestra escorts the theatre-goers out with music.


















One awesome show at Hiram Johnson High School!

After having played on Broadway for 21 years, rights to perform "Cats" are only now becoming available for community theaters, and they are still just restricted to youth groups.

"Cats" has its inherent weaknesses - Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals often do. The various tales of various cats has very little dramatic velocity - I doubt T.S. Elliot intended his poems to serve such a function, and there is little any playwright can do to improve things.

But given its flaws, "Cats" nevertheless DOES allow the costume designers to run riot, and it DOES allow the scenic and lighting designers to have a party, and it DOES give numerous opportunities for numerous lead singers to perform, and it does permit a large ensemble, and it DOES allow plenty of room for extended dance sets. In other words, it is the PURRfect show for RCTC!

RCTC alternates casts - we came Friday, since many DMTC/YPT veterans were present in the Winter Garden lead roles that night.

One difficulty with the show was that it was hard to understand all the lyrics being sung. In the end, that doesn't matter much, since the words serve little to advance whatever plot there is (more evidence that T.S. Elliott wasn't thinking Broadway when he came up with clever, complicated rhyming lines, or he would have simplified things). The singing is all pretty, and that is what matters in the end.

Certain people really stood out. I had no idea Alex Stewart (Mr. Mistofeles) was so good at ballet! Elliot Mende (Rum Tum Tugger) has excellent stage presence. Andrew Lemons was fun as Growltiger (he dressed as a pirate, and covered an eye with a dashing bandana, but then battled annoying depth-preception issues as a result)! Kristen Meyers was fine as Jellylorum/Griddlebone, and Christopher Baeta-Orick was effective as Gus, The Theatre Cat. Katherine Vanderford (Grizabella) brought forth tears when she sang 'Memory' - so beautiful!